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Fitchburg church reaches out to minority veterans

By Alana Melanson, amelanson@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
11/13/2012 06:32:55 AM EST

FITCHBURG -- When Robert Lyle attended the city's Veterans Day service two years ago, he looked around at the faces in the audience, and the dearth of minority veterans was immediately noticeable to him.

Feeling there had to be more than two in the city, Lyle found himself wondering where all of the black and Latino veterans were, and if they knew about all of the benefits due to them as servicemen and women.

"We needed to have a way to reach everybody, no matter what branch of service they were, no matter what nationality they were," said Lyle, 79. "We needed to reach everybody."

Lyle, a Korean War veteran who left the Army after 11 years of service in 1961 as a sergeant first class, is a parishioner of the New Patriots Congregation Christian Church, which moved to Fitchburg from Devens about two years ago.

The church is 85 percent veterans and consists mostly of minorities, and even within that community, there are many folks who simply aren't aware of what veterans' benefits they are entitled to, he said.

What Lyle and his fellow parishioners and veterans, Judy Anderson and Nathan Hicks, are envisioning, with the blessing of Pastor Timothy Martin, is to create a veterans' walk-in center at the church, where veterans can meet and socialize with their peers, learn about the benefits available to them and how to access them, "or just drop in and have a cup of coffee," Lyle said.

They're partnering with the Gardner-based Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center to start offering MVOC office hours by appointment in Fitchburg, with the hope of one day operating a satellite office here.

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Having the much-needed services available in Fitchburg is going to make a big difference in the lives of the veterans in the city and those who live in the more far-flung communities the MVOC serves, said Anderson, 58, of Fitchburg, who served in the Army for nine years, leaving as a sergeant in 1983, and is also married to a veteran.

"Most of the people around here don't have transportation to get to Gardner, especially if they're out in Ayer, Townsend or Pepperell," she said. "There's no bus service and little taxi service."

"The ultimate goal is to have a place for veterans to come in and initiate VA action if they want," said Hicks, 71, of Westminster, a Vietnam veteran who retired from the Army as a master sergeant in 1981 after 19 years of service. "Hopefully, we'll have computers, telephone systems, a library-type of environment for them."

They're also working with Our Father's House to reach out to homeless veterans, and with Joana Dos Santos of the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center to reach out to Latino veterans.

The center at New Patriots could be a place for homeless veterans to seek food, counseling and temporary overnight shelter, Anderson said. There's another building on the church property that is not currently being used, and Anderson is hoping it can one day be renovated, possibly through grants and donations, to serve that purpose.

MVOC Outreach Coordinator Stephen Bassett held a well-attended informational meeting at the church Thursday, and another will be held next month on a date to be decided.

Anderson said several veterans have already made appointments with Bassett, and all are hoping that even more will attend the next meeting.

There are many barriers that keep veterans from accessing the benefits they deserve, and some can be very personal.

Lyle's son, John Lyle, 65, a former Air Force sergeant who served from 1966 to 1970, waited almost 40 years to seek veteran's benefits -- and to tell his father the things he did during the war.

It wasn't until three years ago that he finally "came out" as a Vietnam veteran.

John Lyle said he hid the fact for so long because the day he landed at Logan Airport upon his return, he could feel that people looked at him differently in his uniform -- and he's not alone.

"There's a lot of us out there like that, a lot of us, and we're trying to reach them," he said. "And a lot of the younger veterans are falling into the same holes we fell into. It's hard to talk about. It's very difficult to express. We need to let them know help is available."

For more information, contact Bassett at 978-632-9601, Lyle at 978-342-2848, or Fitchburg Veterans' Services Commissioner Michele Marino at 978-829-1797.

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